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Plush tech
November 29, 2010
When I was a kid the future looked like this.
Modern. Sleek. Cool. Technology, we dreamed, would deliver us a touchscreen-controlled, voice-activated world in which humans harness technology, build a peaceful world, and look fabulous doing it.
In my own lifetime, this streamlined aesthetic extends from the Starship Enterprise to the iPad, and it's only logical to note that Jonathan Ive was conceived at roughly the same time NBC aired the first episode of Star Trek, the original series.
We now live in the computer-centric future Star Trek imagined, but with even cooler gadgets. I mean, who needs a separate Tricorder and Communicator when an iPhone functions as both?
Heck, if I were the Captain of anything, I could record my Captain's Log on my tablet computer (i.e. iPad) decked out in Star Trek's futuristic LCARS UI. Yes, Dr. McCoy, there's an app for that.
So if we've already reached that techno-future (warp-speed and transporters aside), how does technology feed our wish-fulfillment now? Easy. Put Mr. Ive on furlough and bring in Captain Kangaroo. Now we want to play in a tactile world. We want cardboard, yarn, and corduroy. We want to re-connect with real-world things. Virtually, of course.
Wearing my amateur social scientist hat, it all makes sense. Our persistently-online existence - with our faces buried in digital devices and social interactions mediated by screens - makes us hungry to reconnect with soft, curvy, analogue things. There's something comforting about inhabiting a world I want to touch and squeeze and roll around in. The simplest activity, like pulling open a zipper in Kirby's Epic Yarn, feels something akin to eating a warm chocolate chip cookie. It feels like home.
Note: click to enlarge images.
I trace this tactile visual style in games back to Pikmin, but we can find precursors in games like Conker's Bad Fur Day (N64) and Viva Piñata (Xbox), both developed by Rare. This analogue texture look requires serious digital horsepower, and Rare was among the first console developers to exploit the dynamic shadowing, colored lighting, and long draw distance necessary to pull it off.
More recently, we're seeing a spate of games with visual designs inspired by textiles and natural-world elements. Little Big Planet remains the touchstone for this tactile art style, with its levels and building materials made of paper, cardboard, wood, sponge, and stone.
Super Mario Galaxy takes a more cartoonish approach, but many of its levels appear to be upholstered in plush canvas with soft features. The Black Hole planet is made of dirt and stone; Pear Planet and the Tropic Planets appear to be covered in felt. Starship Mario in SMG 2 looks like a giant plush toy begging to be hugged.
The most cohesive application of tactile art design is also my latest gaming obsession: Kirby's Epic Yarn. Kirby navigates a world made entirely of fabric, buttons, zippers, yarn, and string. These elements fuse brilliantly with the game's mechanics, so leaping to grab a piece of string can help you reach a higher platform...or unravel an enemy.
Flock, a thin but charming sandbox puzzler from last year, illustrates how this design aesthetic can elevate an otherwise shallow gaming experience. I lost interest in the repetitive gameplay fairly soon, but messing around with the physics in its cushy, whimsical pastures kept me playing longer that I otherwise might have. Similarly, Modnation Racers brings a vinyl art twist to the tactile concept, but in service of a game with problems under the hood.
And finally (for now), we have Ilomilo, an utterly cuddly puzzle game I'm enjoying to the hilt, despite my ineptitude with spatial puzzlers. I've spent only a short time with it, but the charming art style is a big reason I feel so connected to the game. More on this one soon.
We'll see if this tactile art design has legs and, if so, how it serves the games that use it. Kirby's Epic Yarn is a masterpiece (yeah, I went there), but not because it's a Kirby game in a sewing basket. KEY succeeds because the game is about its art design. The game and its distinctive visuals are one. We have a term for ostentatious design that fails to serve a larger core concept: gimmick.
Time for some more Ilomilo. Ooooh, I just want to squeeze that little dome-head guy!


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This article is more than 1 year old
iPhone still not at home to NFC - yet
Using a fondle slab to control a TV?
Despite the rumours and patent filings Apple's new iPhone doesn't feature Near Field Communications capability, though next year's model probably will.
NFC would fit well with iTunes - designed to facilitate payments by tap, it can also be used to pair devices; and Apple has been hoovering up intellectual property in the area including NFC ticketing and living-room remote controls. But the latter will need an upgrade to Apple TV while the former would be too much of a leap for a company that prefers doing things better than to doing them first.
Not that Apple TV isn't overdue an upgrade, and many expected to see some sort of iOS-based TV product on Monday's stage, but it seems we'll have to wait a while before we see the iPhone's OS on a TV screen. When that time comes it will certainly include NFC functionality, ready to interact with an NFC-equipped iPhone this time next year - once everyone else has tested the technology properly.
Not that the existing iPhone is being ignored during testing; Visa and US Bank will be running trials of an iPhone case with in-built NFC this year, enabling Apple to sit back and watch the implementation issues getting resolved before committing itself to the market.
Assuming those trials aren't a complete disaster then NFC could be slipped into an Apple TV product, as espoused by Apple's patents covering how NFC could enable the living room of the future.
"A television may have a display for television video and speakers for television audio, but sharing the display or speakers with another device may involve a complicated or unintuitive process.
"With the techniques disclosed below, a user may share resources from many electronic devices... initiated in a simplified manner; to use the resources of one device on another, the user may simply tap the two devices together."
The pictures accompanying that patent show the NFC Forum logo on what looks like an iPhone, but also on what's clearly an Apple TV remote control - after all, you wouldn't want to have to lean down to your Apple TV to pair it with your iPhone.
NFC's problem has always been the lack of killer application - something that will get punters asking for it and companies making money from it. Wireless ticketing and instant remote-control pairing are both nice things, but neither is compelling enough to be the killer application, and arguments that NFC doesn't need one have been proved baseless.
We've argued before that Apple hasn't the nerve to take the first steps towards NFC, but if this year's trials can iron out the technical issues, and ensure public acceptance, then next year Apple can start doing what it does best - making existing technologies popular. ®

subset: commoncrawl


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aws elastictranscoder wait job-complete
Wait until JMESPath query Job.Status returns Complete when polling with ``read-job``. It will poll every 30 seconds until a successful state has been reached. This will exit with a return code of 255 after 120 failed checks
Name | Description |
--id <string> | The identifier of the job for which you want to get detailed information |
--cli-input-json <string> | Performs service operation based on the JSON string provided. The JSON string follows the format provided by ``--generate-cli-skeleton``. If other arguments are provided on the command line, the CLI values will override the JSON-provided values. It is not possible to pass arbitrary binary values using a JSON-provided value as the string will be taken literally |
--generate-cli-skeleton <string> | Prints a JSON skeleton to standard output without sending an API request. If provided with no value or the value ``input``, prints a sample input JSON that can be used as an argument for ``--cli-input-json``. If provided with the value ``output``, it validates the command inputs and returns a sample output JSON for that command |


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Ohio gay marriage ban is rejected in narrow ruling
Published 12:00 am Monday, December 23, 2013
CINCINNATI (AP) — A federal judge Monday ordered Ohio authorities to recognize gay marriages on death certificates, saying the state's ban on such unions is unconstitutional and that states cannot discriminate against same-sex couples simply because some voters don't like homosexuality.
Although Judge Timothy Black's ruling applies only to death certificates, his statements about Ohio's gay-marriage ban are sweeping, unequivocal, and are expected to incite further litigation challenging the law. Ohio's attorney general said the state will appeal.
Black cited the Supreme Court's June decision striking down part of a federal anti-gay marriage law, saying that the lower courts are now tasked with applying that ruling.
"And the question presented is whether a state can do what the federal government cannot — i.e., discriminate against same-sex couples … simply because the majority of the voters don't like homosexuality (or at least didn't in 2004)," Black said in reference to the year Ohio's gay marriage ban passed. "Under the Constitution of the United States, the answer is no."
Eighteen states and the District of Columbia allow same-sex weddings, up from six before the Supreme Court decision.
Black wrote that "once you get married lawfully in one state, another state cannot summarily take your marriage away," saying the right to remain married is recognized as a fundamental liberty in the U.S. Constitution.
"When a state effectively terminates the marriage of a same-sex couple married in another jurisdiction, it intrudes into the realm of private marital, family, and intimate relations specifically protected by the Supreme Court," he wrote.
Black referenced Ohio's historical practice of recognizing other out-of-state marriages even though they can't legally be performed in Ohio, such as those involving cousins or minors.
Black's decision stems from a lawsuit in July by two gay Ohio men whose spouses recently died and wanted to be recognized on their death certificates as married. The two couples got married over the summer in states that allow same-sex marriage.
Black said "there is absolutely no evidence that the state of Ohio or its citizens will be harmed" by his ruling but that without it, the harm would be severe for two men who filed the lawsuit because it would strip them of the dignity and recognition given to opposite-sex couples.
Black ordered the state not only to recognize the marriages of the two men who filed the lawsuit on their respective spouses' death certificate but also to communicate his orders to anyone in the state involved in completing death certificates.
Attorney General Mike DeWine said the state will take its case to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, also based in Cincinnati. He called Monday's decision "not a huge surprise," given earlier rulings Black made in the case.
"Our job is to defend the Ohio Constitution and state statutes … and that's what we intend to do," DeWine said.
Bridget Coontz, the attorney who argued on behalf of the state, said Wednesday in Black's Cincinnati courtroom that in the Supreme Court's historic June decision, the justices also found that states have the right to decide for themselves whether to recognize gay marriage, and Ohio voters decided not to in 2004.
"Ohio doesn't want Delaware or Maryland to define who is married under Ohio law," she said. "To allow that to happen would allow one state to set the marriage policy for all others."
Civil rights attorney Al Gerhardstein argued to Black that the case was "about love surviving death" and said that the state had no right to recognize certain out-of-state marriages and not others.
Black sided with Gerhardstein, saying that constitutional rights trump Ohio's gay marriage ban, questioning whether it was passed for a legitimate state interest "other than simply maintaining a 'traditional' definition of marriage."
He quoted then-Gov. Robert Taft who said in 2004 that the law was intended "to reaffirm existing Ohio law with respect to our most basic, rooted, and time-honored institution: marriage between a man and a woman."
Black wrote that "the fact that a form of discrimination has been 'traditional' is a reason to be more skeptical of its rationality."
"No hypothetical justification can overcome the clear primary purpose and practical effect of the marriage bans … to disparage and demean the dignity of same-sex couples in the eyes of the state and the wider community," Black wrote.
Also Monday, a federal judge in Utah allowed gay weddings to continue in that state, rejecting a request to put them on hold as the state appeals a decision that sent couples flocking to county clerks for marriage licenses.
Judge Robert Shelby overturned Utah's ban on same-sex marriage Friday, ruling the voter-approved measure is a violation of gay couples' constitutional rights.
New Mexico's highest court also legalized gay marriage Thursday.


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San Diego CA— Pardee Homes, working with conservation groups Preserve Wild Santee, Center for Biological Diversity and California Chaparral Institute, will dedicate 178 acres of open space to the City of San Diego to be included as part of Mission Trails Regional Park (MTRP).
"Mission Trails Regional Park is truly a jewel in the City of San Diego's world class parks system," said San Diego Mayor Kevin L. Faulconer. "It isn't often that 178 acres in the middle of an urban region are dedicated to park use, making this act of environmental preservation truly significant. Partnerships such as this will make our city more sustainable and enjoyable for all San Diego residents, visitors and future generations."
The open space dedication is the result of a 2014 agreement and subsequent negotiations between Pardee Homes and the conservation groups to further enhance the Weston (formerly known as Castlerock) master planned community, a 415-home residential community located near the park just off of State Route 52 and north of Mast Boulevard. The collaboration ensures protections for Quail Canyon Creek and makes land available to benefit people, sensitive wildlife and plants. The 178 acres of open space being dedicated is in addition to nearly half of the 204-acre Weston site that will also be preserved as permanent open space.
"As a lifelong outdoorsman and elected representative for the area, I am excited to see Mission Trails, a true gem in the regional park system, grow by nearly 200 acres," said San Diego City Councilmember Scott Sherman. "The hard work and collaboration between various local authorities and Pardee Homes will ensure the growth and success of the park for many years to come."
The Weston community is the result of more than 10 years of planning and collaboration among the cities of San Diego and Santee, the Padre Dam Municipal Water District, Mission Trails Regional Park, conservation groups, community members and other key organizations. Home building is currently underway at Weston, and model homes are expected to open for sale in the last quarter of this year.
"We are firmly committed to enhancing our region and the communities in which we build," said Jimmy Ayala, Division President, Pardee Homes. "We are excited to collaborate on this important dedication of land and look forward to dedicating this space to the City and the people while providing much-needed quality housing options to the area."
The dedication will help Mission Trails park expand to nearly 7,400 acres and further solidify it as one of the largest urban parks in the United States.
"The dedication of this scenic wildlife habitat will be a crucial step forward for our greater vision of linking Mission Trails Regional Park with Sycamore Canyon Preserve," said Van Collinsworth of Preserve Wild Santee. "Broad healthy linkages of habitat are essential for the survival and recovery of threatened and endangered species such as the California gnatcatcher and the Quino Checkerspot butterfly."
About Pardee Homes
Established in 1921, Pardee Homes is recognized for superior master-planning concepts, quality construction, energy-efficient building practices, responsive customer service, and dedication to the educational and civic goals of the communities in which it builds. Pardee Homes was one of the first builders in San Diego to embrace sustainable building practices and continues to build consideration for the planet into every home and community. Pardee Homes is a member of TRI Pointe Group (NYSE: TPH), a family of premium regional homebuilders supported by the significant resources, economies of scale and thought leadership of a national foundation. The family also includes Maracay Homes in Arizona, Quadrant Homes in Washington, Trendmaker Homes in Texas, TRI Pointe Homes in California and Colorado, and Winchester Homes in Maryland and Virginia – all together making TRI Pointe Group one of the largest homebuilding companies in the U.S. For more information please visit www.pardeehomes.com.
About Preserve Wild Santee
Preserve Wild Santee (founded in 1994) is Santee's oldest and most effective community environmental organization. PWS works to protect and expand Mission Trails Regional Park by linking it to Sycamore Canyon Preserve over East Elliott and Fanita Ranch scenic wild lands. By engaging in land use decisions, we produce a more healthy community with cleaner air, greater recreational opportunities, more scenic views, less traffic congestion and more informed decisions from our public officials. Lean more about Preserve Wild Santee here: https://www.facebook.com/PreserveWildSantee/.
About Center for Biological Diversity
The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.3 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places. The Center for Biological Diversity works to secure a future for all species, great and small, hovering on the brink of extinction. We do so through science, law and creative media, with a focus on protecting the lands, waters and climate that species need to survive. We want those who come after us to inherit a world where the wild is still alive. The Center for Biological Diversity has earned many awards from nonprofit reviewing entities; for example, we're top rated by GreatNonprofits, CharityWatch and Philanthropedia; we're a member of UideStar's exchange program and we've earned a "Best in America" award from Independent Charities of America. We're a 501(c)3 organization, and all contributions are tax-deductible. Learn more about supporting the Center here: http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/support/index.html.
About California Chaparral Institute
The California Chaparral Institute is a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) association of scientists, wildland firefighters, naturalists and educators, who value the chaparral as both a valuable resource and a place to enjoy the wilderness. Our work promotes an understanding and respect for the chaparral and the Mediterranean climate in which most Californians live. Learn more about supporting the Institute here: http://www.californiachaparral.org.


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This article is more than 1 year old
US spy drone hijacked with GPS spoof hack, report says
Electronic warfare comes of age – in Iran
The US stealth drone broadcast last week on Iranian state television was captured by spoofing its GPS coordinates, a hack that tricked the bird into landing in Iranian territory instead of where it was programmed to touch down, The Christian Science Monitor reported.
The 1700-word article cited an unnamed Iranian engineer who said he's studying the inner workings of the American bat-wing RQ-170 Sentinel that recently went missing over Iranian airspace. He said the spoofing technique made the craft "land on its own where we wanted it to, without having to crack the remote-control signals and communications" from the US control center.
CSM reporter Scott Peterson and an Iranian journalist publishing under the pen name Payam Faramarzi said the GPS weakness of aircraft has long been known to US military officials. They cited a 2003 report titled GPS Spoofing Countermeasures that appears to warn of the type of attack claimed by the Iranian engineer.
"A more pernicious attack involves feeding the GPS receiver fake GPS signals so that it believes it is located somewhere in space and time that it is not," the report states. "This 'spoofing' attack is more elegant than jamming because it is surreptitious."
A paper (PDF) presented at a security conference in October further elaborated on GPS spoofing attacks, laying out the ingredients necessary for a "seamless takeover" of drones and other airborne vehicles.
US officials have blamed the loss of the sophisticated drone on a malfunction, but have yet to explain how it managed to stay in relatively pristine condition after its recovery by the Iranians.
Over the past 36 months, Iran has suffered a series of setbacks that some analysts blame on a covert war carried out by the US, Israel, or other adversaries. The recent assassinations of its nuclear scientists, explosions at missile and industrial facilities, and the Stuxnet worm that sabotaged uranium enrichment plants are three examples.
"Now this engineer's account of how Iran took over one of America's most sophisticated drones suggests Tehran has found a way to hit back," the CSM article states. ®


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Setting the right price can be the difference between selling your car quickly, or not selling at all.
This is one of the most difficult decisions to make when selling your car. The biggest problem most people make is setting their expectations too high.
The Price Is Right
Make sure the price you're asking for the car is realistic. Too expensive and you may not get any interest. Too cheap and people may wonder what's wrong with the car. Also remember to leave a bit of room for bargaining - 21st century buyers love to think they're getting a good deal.
One of the first things to do is find out what your car is worth, based on its age, mileage and condition. Now, you could wade through dozens of classifieds, comparing your car, it's condition and mileage to the dozens of other similar vehicles, or you could use CountryCars' 'Value your Car' database, which has done all the work for you.
Value your car
To get a better idea of what your car is worth, consider the following:
1. Determine the current market value based on its age, kilometres and condition. 2. Check what price others are selling similar cars for. Remember, dealers can get more money for a similar car as they provide many advantages, i.e. security / warranty / inspections etc. 3. Consider any work that is required; when was the last time you serviced the car, do the tyres need replacing, is there any body damage or rust, do your brakes need replacing etc. All these things should be considered when you are setting your price. 4. Is your car in demand or not? The more unique your car is the better chance you have of getting a higher price. 5. In general, you should decide what you think your car is worth and price it slightly higher; leaving room for negotiations
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Given the current welfare state, would you oppose citizenship, including and especially voting rights, for at least some immigrants (approximately those that are called illegal immigrants today)?I've been thinking about a proper answer, and here's what I've come up with:
Obviously, no one should, in defiance of justice, be able to get anything from anyone by force, even if the booty passes through the state first. The citizenship issue is complicated by the welfare state. If the state were minimized (and kept that way -- a pipe dream in my view), citizenship wouldn't matter much. But today voting means being able to vote for legal plunder and warmongers. (I'm reminded of what Lysander Spooner said about women's suffrage: Women should have the same right to vote as men have: none.)
So I guess I have no problem with conditions for citizenship, such as a residency requirement and no criminal record (meaning real crimes with victims). I have to laugh at requirements about speaking English and taking a history and civics test. Could most natural-born Americans pass such a test? (A recent survey found that more people can name the Simpsons than the freedoms specified in the First Amendment.) The state of their English literacy isn't too good either. I do see a problem with saying that immigrants can't partake of the welfare state: schools, hospitals, Medicaid, etc. They do pay taxes. As long as the system exists and immigrants are taxed, it can't be proper to exclude them. I once proposed that if they are going to be excluded, then in fairness they shouldn't be taxed.
In which case I will renounce my citizenship and apply for immigrant status.


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Centrally Managed from the Cloud
The Cisco Meraki Cloud Networking architecture enables plug and play branch deployments and provides centralized visibility and control across any number of distributed locations.
The Cisco Meraki MS is the industry's first cloud managed switch, combining the benefits of cloud-based centralized management with a powerful, reliable access platform.
With cloud management, thousands of switch ports can be configured and monitored instantly, over the web. Provision remote sites without on-site IT, deploy network-wide configuration changes, and easily manage campus and distributed networks without training or dedicated staff.
Virtual Stacking
Cisco Meraki MS Switches feature virtual stacking — an industry first — that allows management of thousands of switch ports as one, without requiring a physical connection between switches.
Quickly find and configure switch ports across your entire network, even those in geographically-distributed locations. Easily configure ports for access devices, assign voice VLANs, control PoE, and more, with a few simple clicks and without complex CLI instructions.
Virtual stacking is built-in to all Meraki MS Switches, with no need for extension modules, proprietary cables, or extra configuration. Simply log in to the Cisco Meraki dashboard and manage the entire access switch infrastructure without concern for their interconnectivity.
Layer 7 Application and Client Visibility
Cisco Meraki MS Switches are the industry's only switches featuring integrated Layer 7 application and client fingerprinting and analysis. Hundreds of applications are automatically identified and reported, from business apps to BitTorrent and YouTube, so administrators can see where resources are spent.
Device fingerprinting with Google-like search allows administrators to easily find and identify individual users, iPads, Androids, and other devices. Search for devices across the entire network right from the Meraki dashboard, no matter which switch a device connects to.
QoS for Voice and Video
Deploy latency-sensitive applications such as voice and video by guaranteeing network performance. Voice and QoS features such as per-VLAN and protocol-based prioritization, as well as flexible QoS assignments, give inuitive, granular control.
Intelligent use of LLDP on the network makes deploying devices such as VoIP phones painless. Simply select a VLAN for voice in the dashboard, and selected ports will accept tagged traffic on the voice VLAN. The port also uses LLDP advertisements to recommend devices use that VLAN for voice traffic.


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Spending your money where it helps the most
I was sorry to hear that Spring Street Café in Sylva had closed. Emily Elders opened the restaurant about a year ago. It was downstairs from City Lights bookstore, a happy marriage of good books and fine dining. Eat and read: my perfect life in a nutshell.
Spring Street focused on using locally grown organic foods. It was hip, and fun, and seemed well thought out and executed. I thought the recipes, service and atmosphere generally on target. So what went wrong? Well, these are still hard times, as Emily reminded us in an announcement she sent out about being forced to close.
"While no words can express our collective sadness at seeing our dreams come to an end, there are some important things we wanted to share with you," Emily wrote. "In spite of all of our best efforts, this economy is, well, difficult, to say the least. It's hard on everyone here in Sylva and throughout Jackson County. We hope that you will follow our lead in supporting your local businesses in every way you can, particularly over the next few months."
I, for one, have been slipping when it comes to concentrating my dollars locally. Emily's reminder is a timely one, particularly as we head toward winter. When shopping, try to shop locally, I'm reminding myself … again. I shouldn't have forgotten in the first place. And, patronize small, independent businesses.
We all have our individual definitions of 'local.' To some, it is made up solely of the town or county in which they live. Locally, to me, however, means Asheville west. I've lived or worked in every county and town in that geographic region, and I view our local economy as encompassing this same area.
If I thought more about it, I'd probably include a slice of north Georgia in that mental map, too — at least Rabun County, because it kisses the Macon County line, and U.S. 441 is such an easy and quick route from one county to the other. And for those of us living on the Blue Ridge escarpment — in Cashiers and Highlands — it is equally natural to consider Transylvania County and Pickens County, South Carolina, 'local.' In fact, I think one should.
Related Items
Wherever we are talking in WNC, or northern Georgia or upstate South Carolina, running a small business is tough stuff. I know this firsthand: until recently, I was an organic farmer and beekeeper, and my livelihood was directly tied to people's willingness to buy what I sold. No sales equaled no money. That meant no food on the table. There was a wonderful simplicity to my lifestyle then.
I learned a lot not working for others. Those three-and-a-half years represent the only period that I've worked for myself. (At least since I started gainful employment all those years ago. My first job was as a not-very-adept waitress at the Fryemont Inn in Bryson City. Spilled tea on the mayor my first week or so, in fact, and cried bitterly. Life can be very hard when one is 14.)
Working for myself enabled me to learn many valuable lessons. I discovered one's bank account doesn't automatically take a jump for the better every two weeks. In fact, the opposite is usually true. I learned humility. Oh, and upon losing the farm (isn't my life a wonderful cliché?), I discovered what the Greeks meant when they discussed hubris. But that's a topic for another day. Or, perhaps not: self-revelation can be a real bore for everyone but the individual involved. I've learned that, too.
One thing, however, I'm happy to have discovered is that Western North Carolina is a wonderful place to own and operate a business. People are supportive. Fellow business owners are generally helpful. There is a lot of encouragement.
The darker side? This region is downright scary come winter. The customer base dwindles to practically nothing after Christmas. Paying bills, buying food, putting gasoline in the car, these things can become very difficult, if not impossible, when cold weather sets in.
This is what Emily reminded me of, during a time when it would be natural if she thought only of the loss of her dreams.
So I'm hoping you give it thought, too. Define what local means. Buy locally when possible. It might help prevent another sad situation, such as the loss of Spring Street Café in Sylva.


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- Date: 02 May 2013
- Author: Nick Conger
Maybe it's all the recent droughts, or severe storms, or basic supply/demand dynamics, but there's a lot of buzz about water risk these days. Alexis Morgan, a global water expert at WWF, is most concerned with the latter issue. Alexis and executives from PepsiCo and Calvert take to the "Wet & Wild: Assessing & Managing Agricultural Water Risks" panel session at today's Ceres Conference, where they'll discuss strategies to bring water use back into balance with nature.
Over 70 percent of Earth's surface is covered by water, but less than 3 percent is freshwater. Water use grew twice as fast as population growth in the 20th Century, and by 2030, global demand is predicted to increase to a level 40% above current supply. With an increasing number of mouths to feed, thirsts to quench and people to clothe, this presents serious considerations for business, with dire implications for our planet.
The agriculture sector is responsible for most water consumption globally. Cotton, one of the "thirstiest" crops in our lives, illustrates the larger issue. It currently takes 5,000 gallons of water to produce a single cotton t-shirt or pair of jeans. Many of today's cotton fields require irrigation, and are often located in regions where water is scarce. In the Indus of Pakistan, a top cotton producing area, agriculture sucks up 95% of water used by people.
Requiring a lot of water in regions lacking water is a recipe for risk. Managing it requires knowing where the water comes from and understanding local conditions. Today, Alexis will emphasize this need for visibility citing WWF's Water Risk Filter. This tool helps businesses ask the right questions and evaluate the right issues, generating a "risk score." From there, the tool guides users to reassess business practices according to their unique risk.
Many existing environmental standards include metrics to improve efficiency on the farm or in facilities. But this only covers a portion of water risk. Even if a site is highly efficient, upstream waters can create shared physical, reputational and regulatory risk. To help mitigate this, the Alliance for Water Stewardship has just released a new Beta Standard. It's the first international water stewardship standard giving companies and utilities a roadmap for sustainable water use. It focuses heavily on managing water within a "watershed context" recognizing that water is inherently local.
The effects of climate change only exasperate the complicated supply/demand dynamics at play. This is not lost on business executives, but solutions and strategies are still nascent. As a shared resource, water risk requires a collective response. All the more reason why gatherings like the one in San Francisco today, convening voices from across society, are vital to finding shared solutions.
Three Steps to Managing Water Risk:
- Assess your exposure to water risks in a matter of minutes.
- Consider implementing the Beta AWS Standard at your manufacturing facility or participating in the open public comment period.
- Learn more about what it takes to be a water steward.


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It would be great to know if this will land in Fedora 14 or be deferred.
After creating a grub config file with grub2-mkconfig, the file it creates contains a warning urging me not to edit it. I'd like to make some changes to this file. Would it be a problem to no longer make it read-only? Is there some more automated way to make changes? I think that this article should make the answers to these questions clear. Enderandpeter 22:39, 21 August 2010 (UTC)
Can this be edited to reflect the change in time
Has the number of releases of Grub2 since this feature's page was first created - coupled with other distributions acceptance and testing of Grub2 - enable us to edit some of the things under "Scope"?
Update release notes section
- Can you update the release notes section with something at least basic so I can move this on to FESCo? It can be as simple as just adding in a line about what grub2 is/does. --Rbergero 18:43, 29 May 2011 (UTC)
- I wrote a short blurb there, might need some tweaks. Peter, it would really help users if you'd make a wiki page explaining the configuration changes. Elad 19:11, 1 July 2011 (UTC)
Debian & Ubuntu use os-prober, not sure if it can be used by non-Debian distros. Jbicha 02:32, 19 July 2011 (UTC)
I have already packaged it for Fedora, and filled a bug for grub2 to add it as a dependency. Hedayat 13:33, 15 Aug 2011 (UTC)
Is it possible to recover with a Fedora 16 CD? If so, we may with to say so. Thanks. - Kitchm (talk) 00:56, 14 September 2012 (UTC)


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Graphic Novel Review: Tom Strong by Alan Moore and Chris Sprouse
Every medium has its strange little quirks. Odd little rules of the form that have developed and that creators rarely deviate from.
For example, it is rare for a movie to have a plot that unfolds in real time. Television shows are limited in length by half-hour increments, allowing, of course, for commercials. You may see a program that's 15 minutes long, but never 45 minutes.
It's theoretically possible to have a show be 20 minutes long or a movie that is in real time, but it's rarely if ever done in practice.
Comic books are no different. They have their own rules and standards that creators are obliged to follow.
One of the most peculiar things about sequential art as a medium is that it is largely devoted to a single genre – superhero action/adventure.
There are certainly lots of comics that do not involve capes or tights. But the vast majority of the comics produced in this medium prominently feature superheroes.
It wasn't always this way. In the aftermath of the Second World War, superhero titles began to disappear off the rack. Only Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman survived in any form. Titles like Captain America, Captain Marvel and Green Lantern were replaced by Westerns, Romances and especially horror books.
However, as the Silver Age dawned with Showcase #4 and Fantastic Four #1, superheroes came back in to vogue. DC and Marvel plunged into producing cape and tights stories almost whole hog. Even characters that were of other genres like Nick Fury, Jonah Hex, Mille the Model, Patsy Walker and the Two-Gun Kid were folded into their mainstream continuity.
Since then, the medium and the genre have been inexorably linked. Sure, there are still some comics that do not feature superheroes, but they are few and far between.
It would be like if CBS and NBC's programming was almost entirely police procedural dramas.
All this serves a lengthy preamble to talk about Alan Moore's America's Best Comics, an attempt by the famed author to break free from the superhero genre. He introduced books like Top 10, Promethea and Greyshirt that were departures from the usual comic book fare.
The most prominent work in the ABC line was Tom Strong, an analog of Doc Savage, Tarzan, Tom Swift and other pulp-styled heroes of the early 20th century.
Although still definitely an action-adventure story, Tom Strong is not a crime fighter or vigilante of any sort. His primary interest is science and education. He's constantly inventing Swiftian devices that, predictably, become useful in his latest adventure. He is a utopianist devoted to improving his world.
Of course, Strong is often beset by villains who want to destroy his hometown of Millennium City or kill him to avenge an earlier defeat. Enemies like Nazi air pirate Ingrid Weiss, technological plague the Modular Man and Strong's arch-nemesis Paul Saveen plague the hero and his family.
They're all fun, off-beat characters that can make you laugh while remaining threatening to the safety of Tom Strong and his extended family.
As always, Moore does a fantastic job of developing characters quickly and creating entertaining traps for Strong to unravel, all while maintaining the traditional sense of fun inherent in all pulp fiction.
Chris Sprouse's artwork shines. It's crisp, clean and expressive, while being remarkably detailed where required. He's a master illustrator who can communicate emotions to his readers in a single, textless panel. It's some of the best artwork I've ever seen in a comic.
Sprouse isn't the only penciler on this series though. Other acclaimed artists like Arthur Adams, Gary Frank, Dave Gibbons and Jerry Ordway lend a hand. Their inclusion in the project was done in a very clever way – they draw all the flashback scenes. Because these looks into Tom Strong's past are presented as older issues of the series, the different styles aren't jarring and, if anything, add to the whole piece.
I would recommend Alan Moore's Tom Strong to anyone who enjoys comics, but especially to those who want a break from the more mainstream and mundane superhero books that clutter shelves at your local shop. He remains one of the few creators in the medium that can shed the cloak of superheroes.


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The rest of the story
The recently-concluded U.S. election reinforced for everyone, The Legal Genealogist included, that the absolute best way to get wonderful research done into your personal genealogy is to run for high political office.
A presidential candidate is essentially guaranteed to have everyone and her brother checking out every overlap between his genealogy and that of his opponent,1 all the famous people in the candidate's family tree2 and any connections to interesting aspects of American history.3
Heck, run for President and folks will even track down your relatives overseas,4 though I suspect you'd still have to ask them to do that DNA test yourself…
It's enough to turn a brick-walled genealogist green with envy…
So it was with pleasure that I discovered, buried in a footnote in yesterday's guest blog by Bruce W. Owen,5 one little nugget that was too good to leave in a footnote. It turns out that in at least one case, a President didn't just accept the gift of genealogical research done on his behalf, he also actively gave back by contributing to preserving and recording records that today's genealogists can use.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, born 30 Jan 1882 at Hyde Park, New York, governor of New York from 1928 to 1932, elected President of the United States in 1932 and re-elected in 1936, 1940 and 1944, died 12 April 1945 at Warm Springs, Georgia, buried in the Rose Garden of his Hyde Park estate.6
Great Depression President.
War-time President.
Historian and patron to genealogy.
Who knew?
In the course of his research, Bruce discovered a volume called Records of Crum Elbow Precinct, Dutchess County, New York, 1738-17617 … and the editor was Franklin D. Roosevelt.
That Franklin D. Roosevelt? Yes.
His interest piqued, Bruce looked into this, and reports on what he found:
I was previously unaware of FDR's interest in genealogy. Checking online, I found a short tribute to this and related interests: "He was a major patron of the Dutchess County Historical Society. He somehow found time from his presidential schedule in 1939 to edit an entire volume of Records of the Crum Elbow Precinct, Dutchess County."8
Sarah Malcolm, Archives Specialist at the FDR Library in Hyde Park, recently added the following to the story of FDR's work in the genealogy field:
FDR was always fond of history and was especially interested in the history of the Hudson River Valley, the United States Navy and other periods of American history. He was a collector of historical documents, manuscripts and books. He considered himself to be an amateur historian and at one point was the historian for the town of Hyde Park. He was especially interested in the history of Dutchess County in which his family had played a prominent role.
In 1914, FDR and Professor Helen Wilkinson Reynolds of Vassar College founded the Dutchess County Historical Society. Among their projects, they sought the publication of historical local documents. One of the volumes published was The Records of Crum Elbow Precinct. Another volume published by the historical society with FDR listed as editor is The Records of the Town of Hyde Park.9
Wow. Thank you, Mr. President. And thank you, Bruce, for letting us all know.
- See Tom Kemp, "Obama & Romney Are Related! Genealogy Infographic"), GenealogyBank.com Blog, posted 12 Oct 2012 (http://blog.genealogybank.com : accessed 12 Nov 2012). ↩
- See ibid. Also, "Ancestry.com: You won't believe whom Mitt Romney is related to," Deseret News online edition, Salt Lake City, Utah, posted 24 Oct 2012 (http://www.deseretnews.com : accessed 12 Nov 2012), and "Barack Obama's Family Tree," Time Magazine online (http://www.time.com : accessed 12 Nov 2012). ↩
- Krissah Thompson, "Obama's purported link to early American slave is latest twist in family tree," Washington Post online edition, posted 30 Jul 2012 (http://www.washingtonpost.com : accessed 12 Nov 2012), and "Romney's 'Family Came From a Polygamy Commune,' says Montana Gov.," ABC News, posted 20 Apr 2012 (http://abcnews.go.com/ : accessed 12 Nov 2012). ↩
- Maria Golovnina, "Romney's English roots surprise cousins left behind," Reuters U.S. edition online, posted 8 Oct 2012 (http://www.reuters.com : accessed 12 Nov 2012), or "Obama's Kenyan relatives react to White House win," Fox News, posted 7 Nov 2012 (http://www.foxnews.com : accessed 12 Nov 2012). ↩
- Judy G. Russell, "A pend-ing question," guest blog by Bruce W. Owen, The Legal Genealogist, posted 12 Nov 2012 (https://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog : accessed 12 Nov 2012). ↩
- "Biography of Franklin D. Roosevelt," Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum (http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/ : accessed 12 Nov 2012). ↩
- Franklin D. Roosevelt, ed., Records of Crum Elbow Precinct, Dutchess County, New York, 1738-1761 (Poughkeepsie, NY: Collections of The Dutchess County Historical Society, 1940); digital images, HathiTrust Digital Library (http://www.hathitrust.org/ : accessed 2 Nov 2012). ↩
- Andrew Rieser, "Hudson Valley Bookshelf: Roosevelt Country," AboutTown (http://www.abouttown.us/ : accessed 29 Oct 2012). ↩
- Sarah L. Malcolm, Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, e-mail to Bruce W. Owen, sent 9 Nov 2012. ↩


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Mac OS X Tiger
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- About this Wikibook
- The scope and motivation behind this Wikibook.
- Using this Wikibook
- Quick guide on how to use and participate in this book.
- Running Mac OS X Tiger today
- A retrospective for modern users of macOS.
- Introduction
- Introduction to the OS X Tiger.
- The Desktop
- A gentle first lesson in using your Mac.
- A Quick Look Under the Hood
- A simple view of what is lurking beneath the UI.
- The Mac Interface
- A follow-up to the first chapter that finishes explaining the Mac Interface.
- Using the Finder
- An introduction to browsing files on your Mac using the Finder.
- Advanced Finder Tricks
- An advanced chapter that helps you get the most out of the Finder.
- Meet the Applications
- A complete look at all of the applications included with Tiger.
- Utilities
- Instructions for using the various Utilities included with Mac OS X.
- System Preferences
- Learn how to adjust your Mac's settings to your liking.
- User Accounts
- Learn about accounts and understand the Mac OS X account system.
- Networking your Mac
- A guide to connecting your Mac to other Macs, PCs, and the Internet.
- Using your Mac as a Web Server
- Guide to using Mac OS X as a web server.
- Printing, Faxing, and Scanning
- Connect a printer and scanner to your Mac and learn how to send faxes.
- Handwriting and Speech
- Teach your Mac how to recognize your voice and your writing.
- Installing Tiger
- Learn how to upgrade an older version of Mac OS X to Tiger.
- Advanced Concepts
- Insight into the UNIX background and inner workings of Mac OS
- Appendices
- A: The Keyboard Shortcut Cheat Sheet
- Learn keyboard shortcuts to speed up your work flow.
- B: Mac OS X Troubleshooting
- Fix problems and determine what is causing your Mac or its applications to crash.
- C: Directory of Mac Models
- A directory of all modern (G4, G5, or Intel) Mac models.
- D: Top 30 Questions
- This appendix answers the top 30 questions people ask when using Mac OS X.
- E: Top 30 Mistakes
- This appendix lists the top 30 mistakes new Mac users make.
- A: The Keyboard Shortcut Cheat Sheet
- Glossary
- Find a term you don't know? You might find it in the glossary.
- Pages to be incorporated (or deleted) Locally increased lead, Spaces disappear


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January 28, 2014
Top Shelf Productions is both proud and honored to congratulate Congressman John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell, the creators of March: Book One, on yesterday's announcement that their graphic novel is a Coretta Scott King Honor Book.
Since 1970, the Coretta Scott King Book Awards have celebrated outstanding books for young people about the African American experience. The honor for March: Book One (the first in a planned trilogy of graphic novels in which Congressman Lewis recounts his astonishing life in the civil rights movement) is only the second time the CSK committee has selected a book in comics format. It marks the first Coretta Scott King honor for Lewis, Aydin, or Powell, as well as for publisher Top Shelf.
March: Book One ended 2013 being listed among the year's best books by USA Today, The Washington Post, Publishers Weekly, and many more publications, and was recently selected by comic book retailers to receive Diamond Comic Distributors' Gem Award as Independent Graphic Novel of the Year. It is currently in its 21st week on the New York Times bestseller list.
For more information or to download the free Teacher's Guide to March: Book One, please visit www.topshelfcomix.com/march.
by Congressman John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell


text:
Here's a look at what has consumers buzzing in the world of beer, wine and spirits:
Ballsy Beer to Be Canned: It's a joke that keeps on delivering. Wynkoop Brewing made headlines last year with an April Fool's joke about brewing a beer using Rocky Mount Oysters aka bull testicles. Then they made even more headlines with news that they actually brewed it. Now they are at it again. Wynkoop has announced they will be canning the beer and selling it nationwide via Beerjobber.com The beer will be sold in, what else, cans of two. The folks at the Wynkoop are no strangers to having a little fun. They are also in the process of picking their annual Beer Drinker of the Year.


text:
ATLANTA (AP) - Thousands of students couldn't afford to go to college this school year because the U.S. Department of Education made changes to a popular loan program.
The agency is putting more scrutiny on the PLUS loan program as part of an effort to more closely align government lending programs with industry standards and decrease default rates.
The tougher eligibility requirements affected families and schools everywhere, but historically black colleges were hit particularly hard because so many of their students come from low-income families dependent on PLUS loans.
The National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education is a group representing predominantly black colleges. The group says families of more than 14,000 students at historically black colleges were denied PLUS loans last fall.


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Interior of Io
The diagram to the left shows the interior of Io, based on recent measurements by the Galileo spacecraft. It shows a large iron/sulphur core (the Earth's core is iron/nickel), overlain with a silicate rocky material. There is no ice present within Io.
When the Galileo spacecraft flew by Io it took measurements which showed that Io was separated into two layers, as shown in this picture.
The history of Io is one of continuous warming due to tidal forces, which results in extensive volcanic activity on the surface. The tidal forces cause Io to warm up the same way a coat hanger, folded back and forth will cause coat hanger to warm.
As shown in the figure, possible pools of melted, liquid sulphur, encounter the hot pockets of Io's interior and boil, providing Io with geysers on the surface.


text:
Van Halen Poses for Photo with Interscope Records Staff
Van Halen is captured in a new photograph with the bosses of Interscope records, with whom they just signed a record deal that takes them away from Warner Brothers for the first time in their career.
If you think about it, despite all the speculation, this is the first official confirmation from the band, other than lead singer David Lee Roth's vague 'Get Ready' website post back in July, that they are actually releasing a new CD.
Although in most cases it's rather easy to determine who's in a rock band and who has a day job in this photo, in case you're curious, Blabbbermouth runs down the lineup pictured above: (left to right) Alex Van Halen; Wolfgang Van Halen; Eddie Van Halen; Jimmy Iovine, Chairman, Interscope Geffen A&M Records; Irving Azoff, Executive Chairman of Live Nation Entertainment and Chairman and CEO of the Front Line Management Group (jeez that's a long title!); Steve Berman, Vice Chairman, Interscope Geffen A&M Records; David Lee Roth; and Jim Urie, President and CEO, Universal Music Group Distribution.
(P.S. -- Are you reading anything into the fact that Roth is standing away from his bandmates? Yeah, neither are we.)
OK, ready for the two-minute drill? The upcoming new Van Halen album, which is expected (but not confirmed) to be released in early February 2012, will be the band's first since 1998's 'III' and their first with original lead singer Roth since 1984's '1984.' Conflicting reports suggest the band will (or will not) appear on the Grammy nominations show Nov. 30 to make some sort of announcement about their plans.


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man pages section 1M: System Administration Commands Oracle Solaris 11 Information Library |
- frame buffer configuration utility
fbconfig [-dev device_file] [-help]
fbconfig -list
fbconfig -gui
fbconfig -res \?
fbconfig [-dev device_file] [-file machine | system] [device_specific_options] [-res video-mode] [defaults] [-prconf] [-prdid[raw] [parsed]] [-propt]
fbconfig is the generic command line interface to query and/or to configure a frame buffer device. Depending on the command line options, fbconfig can invoke a GUI program, or it can invoke a device-specific configuration program. The choice of device configuration program depends both on the device (specified with -dev) and on the currently configured X server.
The options recognized by fbconfig are shown in the first three command forms in the SYNOPSIS section. The remaining forms illustrate options that may be passed to a device-specific configuration program that performs the actual operations. The interpretation of these options will depend upon the specific configuration program that is invoked. The options shown are supported by most device configuration programs.
If the -dev option is omitted, the default frame buffer (/dev/fb or /dev/fb0) is assumed.
The following options are supported by fbconfig:
Specify the frame buffer device by its full pathname or simple filename. Pathnames of installed devices can be displayed using the -list option. If the -dev option is omitted, the default device is /dev/fb.
Invoke the Graphical User Interface (GUI). The GUI is available if the SUNWdcm package is installed. All other options are ignored.
The GUI can configure devices (as an alternative to the fbconfig command line) and can update the Xservers file without directly editing the file. The GUI allows the user that is logged in on the graphics device or devices to configure which graphics displays the window system should use, their screen layout (where they appear on the user's desktop), and screen properties (X attributes).
In addition, the GUI allows advanced users to create a new video format (resolution) that some graphics devices can select from fbconfig command line or from the device-dependent portion of the GUI. The GUI's online help explains all options and features.
Displays the supported fbconfig command line options, along with a brief explanation of each. Also displays the -help text of the device-specific configuration program, if any. The frame buffer device can be specified using the -dev option, otherwise the default is used. Other fbconfig options are ignored. This is the default fbconfig option.
Displays the pathnames of the installed frame buffer devices, the device model of each, and the configuration program that would be invoked for each device with the currently configured X server. Other fbconfig options are ignored.
Device File Name Device Model Config Program ---------------- ------------ -------------- /dev/fbs/kfb0 XVR-2500 SUNWkfb_config /dev/fbs/kfb1 XVR-2500 SUNWkfb_config /dev/fbs/nfb0 [a|b] XVR-300 SUNWnfb_config /dev/fbs/pfb0 [a|b] XVR-100 SUNWpfb_config
The following options are commonly supported by the device-specific configuration programs:
Sets configuration options to their default values.
Specifies which xorg.conf configuration file to use.
Display the current configuration for the frame buffer and display device(s).
Display the E-EDID (Enhanced Extended Display Identification Data) information obtained from the display device(s), which must be online, connected to the frame buffer. The output will be raw hexadecimal and/or human-readable text. The default is parsed.
Display the current software configuration.
Display the video modes (resolutions) that can be used with the -res video-mode option.
Other supported options are determined by the device-specific configuration program:
The syntax and descriptions of additional device-specific options are displayed in the -help output of fbconfig or the device-specific program. They are also contained in the man page for the device-specific program.
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
fbconf_xorg(1M), attributes(5)
Xserver(1), Xorg(1), Xsun(1), which are part of the OpenWindow, not the SunOS, man page collection.
Because of limitations in the m64 kernel driver and related software, fbconfig (with the -prconf option) is unable to distinguish between a current depth of 24 or 8+24. The -propt option returns the depth specified in the OWconfig file, which will be in effect following the next restart of the window system. The xwininfo utility, usually shipped in the package containing frame buffer software (such as SUNWxwplt), reports current depth of a specified window.


text:
Democrats are labeling any plans that would cut or even flatten Federal spending as the "austerity" option. They use the word austerity to imply an unusual and radical reduction in spending which evokes proposed plans in places like Greece that has all the government workers marching in the street.
But Greece is trying to find a way to move to a fiscal regime they have never even experienced, not in any of our lifetimes and maybe never. In contrast, the US merely needs to move to a place it was way back in about 2006. Yes, that's right, "austerity" is returning to the level of government spending we had five years ago. And we all remember what a blighted time that was, a veritable Mad Max desolation relieved only by Obama arriving like the Postman from the David Brin novel (or the execrable Costner movie, if you prefer).


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3 Nights | 3- DAY BAHAMAS FROM MIAMI - FREE OPEN BAR
You will visit the following 3 places:
Miami is a major city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625. The 42nd largest city in the United States, with a population of 433,136, it is the principal, central, and most populous city of the South {Florida} metropolitan area, the most populous metropolis in the Southeastern United States. According to the US Census Bureau, Miami's metro area is the seventh most populous in the United States, with an estimated population of 5,547,051 in 2009.
Great Stirrup Cay
Great Stirrup Cay is a small island that is part of the Berry Islands in the Bahamas. Norwegian Cruise Line purchased the island from the Belcher Oil Company in 1977 and developed it into a private island for their cruise ship passengers. The northern part of the island has a sandy beach surrounded by rocks with snorkeling areas. The southern part features a helicopter airfield (with a sign reading "Great Stirrup Cay International Airport"), a large area without vegetation, and numerous concrete blocks. These are all remnants of a previous U.S. military installation and satellite tracking station. The island's lighthouse was originally constructed in 1863 by the Imperial Lighthouse Service. Great Stirrup Cay is adjacent to Little Stirrup Cay, Royal Caribbean Cruises' private island.
Nassau County
Nassau County is a suburban county on Long Island in the U.S. state of New York. At the 2010 census, the county's population was 1,339,532, estimated to have increased to 1,361,350 in 2015. The county seat is located in the Village of Garden City, within the boundaries of the Mineola 11501 zip code. Located immediately east of New York City, within the New York-Newark-Bridgeport, the county is one of the four counties that occupy Long Island, together with Suffolk County to its immediate east and Queens and Kings counties to the west, which correspond, respectively, to the New York City boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn. Two cities, three towns, 64 incorporated villages, and more than 60 unincorporated hamlets are located within the county. There are 56 public school districts within the county. Post office districts and school districts use the same names as a city, hamlet, or village within them, but each sets the boundaries independently. In 2012, Forbes magazine, in an article based on the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey, reported that Nassau County was one of the highest income counties in the United States and the most affluent in the state of New York, comprising four of the nation's top ten towns by median income. It also ranks as the most expensive county in America. Nassau County also has a designated police department, fire commission, and elected executive and legislative bodies.